Daily Archives: 2 de March de 2018

(Thousands of Argentinians protest on February 18, 2015 in Buenos Aires, with signs demanding “Truth and Justice,” on the one-month anniversary of the murder of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman. Nisman was murdered by unknown assailants one day before he was officially to present allegations of treason against then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. )

If efforts to expose Iran’s and Hezbollah’s roles in the Argentinean bombings are successful, the information will elucidate for regional leaders the dark side of Iran’s ties to sub-state terrorist groups to increase even further its influence in Latin America.

For decades, Iran has seemingly been employing both normative diplomatic ties and criminal links to export its Islamic revolution to the Western Hemisphere. By using similar methods of subversion, Iran appears already to have penetrated other Latin American nations, including Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil and some island countries in the Caribbean.

Iran’s activities in Latin America are a direct challenge to U.S. primacy in the Western Hemisphere. Iran, it seems, wants to replace the U.S. as the power ally of Latin American countries.

While Iran’s nuclear, ballistic missile, and expansionist policies in the Middle East are well known, most of the Islamic Republic’s operations in Latin America appear to have been proceeding underway, below the radar, for several decades.

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Declassified Argentine intelligence reports also clearly show that Hezbollah had carried out a previous bombing, in 1992, of the Israeli Embassy — an attack in which 29 were killed and around 200 wounded.

Last month marked the third anniversary of the murder of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who claimed to have evidence that would expose the role Argentina’s former president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in obscuring Iran’s alleged responsibility for the attack. Nisman had been leading an investigation into both Iran’s potential role in the AMIA bombing and its possible cover-up by Kirchner.

Initially, Nisman’s death seemed to doom any chance that those who had committed this act of terror would ever be prosecuted. Argentinian protestors, however, questioned initial reports that he had committed suicide and demandedthat his death be investigated.

“Given the highly charged political climate in Egypt and the clampdown on dissent in the lead up to the presidential elections, we are deeply concerned that Ezzat Ghonim may have been forcibly disappeared.

“The Egyptian authorities have a notorious reputation for the use of enforced disappearances to silence human rights defenders and members of the opposition. This appears to be yet another shameless attack on the right to freedom of expression and association. It is a reminder of the incredible obstacles faced by those who are striving to defend the basic rights of the Egyptian people.

“Instead of abducting those who stand up for the rights of others, the Egyptian authorities must protect these activists and facilitate their work. They must disclose any information they have about the whereabouts of Ezzat Ghonim and release him immediately if he is in state custody.”

Background

Amnesty International spoke with the family and colleagues of Ezzat Ghonim about the circumstances of his disappearance yesterday evening. His wife has said she waited for him to return home from his office after he called her at 5:30 pm to let her know he would be home in half an hour. When he had not returned by 6:30 pm, she tried to call his cell phone repeatedly, only to find that it was not available and potentially switched off. She then called Ghonim’s colleagues and acquaintances, before calling local hospitals and police stations without gaining any further information about his whereabouts. She continued trying to reach him through the night, calling Ghonim’s cell phone several times without a response. At 1:30 am she called his cell phone again, hearing it ring for a few minutes without anyone answering. The cell phone has remained unresponsive since.

Faced with a series of stunning legal setbacks in the world’s largest environmental case, Chevron is now trying to orchestrate what appears to be a politically-motivated disbarment of American human rights lawyer Steven Donziger after he helped indigenous and farmer communities win a $9.5 billion judgment against the company over the dumping of billions of gallons of toxic oil waste onto ancestral lands in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest.

The move comes at a time when Chevron is stepping up its attacks on the indigenous groups and their lawyers following three consecutive unanimous defeats in Canadian appellate courts – including one by Canada’s Supreme Court – in a country where the Ecuadorians are threatening to seize vital company assets to pay for their court-mandated clean-up. Just days ago, Chevron publicly attacked prominent Canadian attorney Alan Lenczner after he won the right to depose a high-level corporate official over what appear to be billions of dollars of irregular payments by the company’s Canadian subsidiary to the governments of Nigeria and Indonesia.

Chevron also recently lost an effort in the Ontario Court of Appeal to impose a $1 million costs order on the indigenous groups in an effort to prematurely end the asset seizure litigation. A three-judge panel unanimously criticized the company for trying to end-run the law rather than deal with credible allegations it had committed fraud both in Ecuador and the United States, all of which has a led to a criminal referral of the company to the U.S. Department of Justice.

A Chinese human rights lawyer known for defending Christians died Monday at a military hospital in Nanjing, and his supporters suspect that foul play might be involved.

Li Baiguang complained of a stomach ache some time before his death and was admitted to No. 81 People’s Liberation Army Hospital. Hours later, however, doctors declared they had been unable to save the 49-year-old whose liver failed. But people close to Li attested he was in good health just months before and never drank alcohol.

“After a sudden outbreak of illness, the efforts to save him failed, and he passed away,” a source told the press. “He had not done a health check recently, so we do not know if there was a long-term cause.”

Bob Fu, a friend of Li and a U.S.-based Christian pastor who ran the organization ChinaAid, doubted the circumstances surrounding the lawyer’s death. Fu released a statement and held the Chinese government accountable for the incident.

“He was treated violently last year and was threatened a number of times recently by the Chinese regime,” Fu revealed. “The whole world should demand that the Chinese government give a full, independent, and transparent account on what caused Dr Li’s sudden death.”

Last October, authorities detailed Li for questioning following the government’s crackdown on dissenting citizens who were mostly human rights activists. Amnesty International’s William Nee attested that Li suffered at the hands of security personnel but he was not aware if there had been succeeding detentions and investigations or if the injuries Li incurred months ago contributed to his mysterious death.